People for Puget Sound to disband

SEATTLE — People for Puget Sound, a longtime advocate of Puget Sound restoration, will cease to exist at the end of this month.

Citing financial difficulties, Executive Director Tom Bancroft said the group's staff and structure grew faster than its financial support. After a fundraising campaign failed to generate adequate revenue this spring, the board of directors decided to close up shop while the group still had enough money to pay off its debts.

Remaining funds will be used to move the organization's policy, education and advocacy programs to another environmental group, Washington Environmental Council. Bancroft said he is in negotiations to move restoration projects — largely funded by government grants — into EarthCorps, a group with restoration experience.

In April 2011, Bancroft assumed the directorship of People for Puget Sound from Kathy Fletcher, who had founded the group 20 years earlier.

"This is shocking and sad," Fletcher told the Kitsap Sun. "I never would have imagined that this would happen."

Said Bancroft, "I discovered soon after I got here that the organization was larger than we could afford."

His next move was to lay off about six of the 25 full-time staffers employed at the time he arrived. Another layoff of five staffers followed in May. Further cuts were needed, he said, but the result would be too few people remaining to fulfill program commitments.

By disbanding the organization now, Bancroft says he hopes to keep most of the organization's programs alive under new management.